RVA Blogs: clean up your act! A few friendly suggestions

I have been thinking recently of getting back into the blogging world, dropping my anonymity and expanding (slightly) the scope of Urban Richmond. I can think of no better way of ramping back up than posting a guest author’s thoughts on blogging in Richmond, which is what follows below.

Jason Guard/RVA Foodie asked me to post this on his behalf so that he doesn’t distract students/teachers (who, along with RVA Blogs form the subject of his post) who are just getting introduced to his blog. Here it is:

I have a couple, relatively minor, gripes with the RVA Blogs website. I bring up the topic of “what’s wrong with RVA Blogs” because it’s a lot easier to level a few bits of constructive criticism as opposed to a verbose solilique on the benefits of Richmond’s virtual community that manifests under this convenient URL. Also, I don’t mean to be insensitive, especially considering that RVA Blogs most popular author just offered some pointed feedback about the new layout of the sister site, RVANews.com. Never having met, Ross or Val, I still don’t think it’s appropriate to pick on them as they just gave birth to a three month old baby (10.5 lbs!).

Disclaimers aside, I mostly wanna tell a little story. On Tuesday, I was the guest speaker at a local ESOL class (English for Speakers of Other Languages – formerly known as ESL). They wanted me to talk about blogging. The class is experimenting with some online writing assignments and they just happen to be planning a field trip to a restaurant, so my talk served as a good intro to an upcoming bit of homework. The talk went really well and the group was pretty engaged (to the degree that they actually understood me). But it could have gone better… Why?

As I prepared some mental notes before heading over to the the adult school, I popped by RVA Blogs to see if I had anything in the popular posts list that I could use as a segue. It would be great to show the class how many blogs there are in Richmond and lure them into blogging with the expectation of gaining exposure (and building community) through RVA Blogs. At the very least, they could practice their reading skills on the pithy posts of In Vino Veritas, or bask in the common language of d’amor at Jack Goes Forth. Well, on second thought, I better clarify that anyone can say anything on their blog (and they/we often do). But wait, what’s this?

As I scanned the list of Popular Posts, I came across one titled “Erotic Photography from Le Chagrin.” Uh oh. I don’t want the class to see this projected on the wall. Someone’s gonna tell me to click it. Well, I’m sure it’s innocent enough (I think to myself as I click the link while sitting at my desk – AT WORK). I’m taken to a site that I had been to recently, where a guy who was layed off from the RTD forecasts the demise of the paper. This time around, he’s posting porn. Well, I guess you’d have to be the judge. The booty shots and the implied cunnilingus would probably be rated R. But the one with the spread eagle lady with a guy’s blank in her blank (think proctology exam)… um, that X rated contra-ban is gonna get me in trouble if anyone thinks I walked into a public school and pointed people in that direction.

Damn. I really could have used RVA Blogs as a convenient example of the potential of Web 2.0 applications. I poked around the aggregator looking for ways to circumvent the link to erotic photography. The more I looked over the site, it started to seem like a much less appealing example. The blog roll of postings is dominated by spam from corporate sites (Elliot in the Morning, RTD’s numerous “blogs,” Ellwood’s filabustering hot bar advertisements). The independent voices hardly come through. Sure, the unrepresentative abundance of right wing postings may be a thorn in my craw. And the alleged popularity of these costume blogs where wierdos get off portraying themselves as buffoons makes me shake my head in dismay. But I still believed that RVA Blogs would be a good place to direct those looking to learn about the personal perspectives that make up our city.

Instead of talking about RVA Blogs, I gave examples of professional blogs vs. personal blogs. Then I provided an example of a community blog (CHPN), highlighting the potential for discussion. The class seemed to like the idea of posting on a site where they aren’t solely responsible for the content. So, I played up the multi-purpose functions of blogs, from recipes to food reviews, from baby pictures to political diatribes: something for everyone. Maybe they would choose to self-publish after all. If there was one concern, it was the fear of writing in isolation, the need for their valuable time to go towards interaction, which will further their fluency. Hence, the need for connection, a la RVA Blogs.

Create a separate list called “RVA Bizarro Blogs” where people can access those sites where the author pretends to be some convenient butt of jokes demographic (gap toothed women, religious zealot folk singers, and bartender jiggalos – sorry Jack, your promiscuity is too far fetched to be believed).

Otherwise, manage the site in whatever way is sustainable and consistent with the Catrow morals and the Bill of Rights.

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28 Responses to “RVA Blogs: clean up your act! A few friendly suggestions”

I’ve removed the offending blog and all the offending posts — which is a shame because the post on the death of the RTD was a good one. I emailed the author and let him know that if he wanted to start a different blog I’d add him back in.

A couple of other things:

* I am just a regular dude with a family that is running two businesses. I cannot possibly read every post that floats through RVABlogs.

* But! I do check my email a lot (iPhones!), and I am a totally nice guy. I’d love to get emails about stuff like this *first*. That way it’d give me a chance to deal with it.

* A redesign of RVABlogs is in the works for sometime in 2009. The current design was not created to support nearly 400 blogs. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas as we begin the redesign process.

* Seriously, email me people. Look here is my email address: ross@pharrout.com . How much would I have loved to work together on educating people about blogging? About a billion!

Ross: Just a quick note, as I’m on lunch break. Please file this post under “all attention is good attention.” I tried to bookend the post with acknowledgments of your regular dude-ness (a great contrast to the irregular awesome potential of RVA Blogs). I don’t think RVA Blogs should be more work for you, or for users. I’d have given you a heads up before asking UR~ to post this for me, but I wanted to keep the story simple and turn over the issue to the community of bloggers/blog-readers (alas, UR~ is no longer aggregated).

I mean, why bother you with it if I’m the only one who thinks it’s becoming a drag to sift through the non-blogs to find interesting blogs. The artsy proctology was just a catalyst. Obviously, it was the exception to the rule. The site itself educates people about blogging and probably is largely responsible for the growth of online self-publishing in Richmond. That’s why I was so excited to include it in my presentation. And of course, being able to point to my site under the poplular blogs heading gives me a tiny bit more credibility. Anywho, enough pot stirring from me. I’m interested to see what other think.

I agree with much of what you wrote, Jason, which is why I posted your article (though not the only reason).

I’ve switched from RVA Blogs to google reader as RVAB has become unwieldy, filled with corporate blogs, and I found I was too often missing my favorite bloggers’s postings and wasting time reading about misogynistic sexual escapades…

I miss RVA Blogs, the serendipity of finding new blogs or rediscovering ones I’d forgotten about, as well as keeping my finger on the pulse of the blogging segment of Richmond’s diverse community.

Thanks for all your hard work, Ross, and I applaud your efforts to keep improving RVAB.

The biggest problem with RVAblogs is the lack of website traffic. I think we could all do more to spread the word in Richmond and beyond about the site. I know as well as anyone how hard it is to specifically reach the Richmond audience without spending any money. But if we worked together on that I think it could really pick up.

I agree on the “erotic” post, and some of the corporate blogs, but beyond that I don’t really have a problem with anyone else’s content on the site. The amazing thing is how wonderfully varied the content of RVAblogs has become. At any one moment the 1st page can provide something of interest to just about anyone who might visit. And as a regular reader myself, I have very little difficulty keeping up with all the new posts.

Meade Music (real guy), Spying on Suburbia (real mom, I think), Jack Goes Forth (real guy), and others provide entries that many new readers will appreciate. Each of these so-called “bizarro” sites provide an interesting, unique, and entertaining viewpoint of Richmond. Some writers would kill to have such unique voices as these.

I’d like to see categories somehow, or an effective way to block out an unlimited number of sites.

I like the exposure to unexpected sites, Google Reader doesn’t really do this well even with the “suggested sites” (and I do love me some GR…). There are sites, though, that I want to be able to ignore, to forget that they there (certain political blogs, other crap).

I’m not so concerned about the content of the linked sites. You’re only putting up words, photos would be different.

Clark: So, I guess you’re not a fan. Fair enough. But, you like Urban Richmond~, so you’ve still got my attention. What exactly about this post is so disagreeable? I talked to some english language learners about blogging and food. They’ll probably be lurking on my site and I didn’t want to distract them with this post. That’s why it’s not on my blog. “Directly deal with the offending party?” Who is that? The RTD? Some guy who likes naughty pics? I think the people who use RVA Blogs should (and do) talk about their experience with the site. And how do you expect a blogger to start that conversation with other bloggers?

Seems like the offending parties were the blogger in question and RVAB, both of whom were quite easy to contact. It’s hard to see how that would distract your lurking students, who I’m guessing are adults. RVAB is full of questionable adult content. Just ask Jocelyn or Jack.

rva blogs is the best distraction, aside from my blackberry i have ever had.
and yes, we could do without some of those lamers, but in the long run, i think its doing just fine. and ive learned alot from RVA blogs, about my neighbors, my enemies, and myself.

Damn. I really could have used RVA Blogs as a convenient example of the potential of Web 2.0 applications.

Thing is, that that post was in the popular category is EXACTLY how Web 2.0 works in social media and collective filtering. It might not be the cleanest thing and may make it unsuitable for classroom use, but not everything Web 2.0 going to be clean.

I’d like to see an aggregator just for the community blogs. I care about neighborhood issues, local politics, and community development. I don’t care about the random thoughts and (mis-)adventures of some person who just happens to live in Richmond.

I really appreciate Ross for his regular dude-ness and what he has done for the local blogging community – i.e., effectively creating it.

I would love to be able to personalize RVA Blogs and choose which blogs I see upon visiting/signing in (which I assume would be a necessity, even though I am not tech savvy). A lot of work, I know, but as long as we are throwing out suggestions.

I am new to your blog, Matthew, but enjoyed this post and will definitely be poking around.

I think RVA Blogs needs a better search function. Whenever I try to search for something specific, the results are a mess.

I only check RVA Blogs once every few months now. It’s become clogged to the point where I do not find anything interesting to me on the first page. I’ve added any blogs I’ve found interesting in the past to my Google Reader just so I don’t have to check RVA Blogs.

Thanks, Jocelyn, I see it, although I have to admit: that’s a fairly paltry collection of links. I was thinking of something a little more comprehensive. The “community news” section right now seems to be dominated by four or five neighborhood blogs; but in addition to sites that cover the micro-issues, I was thinking of sites like this one right here, and saverichmond.com, and B&M, because John Sarvay writes a lot about local politics and, you know, city issues.

I’m totally torn the more I think about this. I’d probably like like a channel, or an “a la cart” style menu of my favorite RVA Blogs, but I can barely commit to my Google reader. And I do like the serendipity of finding new and interesting posts (and people probably find my site that way too). I definitely recognize the tension there (cuz it led to the story that kicked this off).

On the other hand, I was kinda into the Tags thing and still put “food” on all of my food posts. Since my site is kinda eclectic (damn baby pictures and social justice causes!), it might not fit neatly into a category. Are the tags still in effect? The DCBlogs site uses categories, but I’m wondering if we’d have enough blogs to make the division/subdivision worthwhile. (http://dcblogs.com/index.php?page_id=590)

As an aside, I noticed that over 6,000 blogs in New York City are listed by Borough and subway stop (http://nycbloggers.com). Hey, at least at RVABlogs, Chesterfield and Henrico are forced to hang out with Richmond City (and vice versa).